President elect Obama is calling for "swift and bold" action on his "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan" to stop the hemorrhaging of the economy. He also wants to change the way Washington does business, "turn the page" on the petty partisanship of the last decades. He's said to want...

Big things keep getting worse, as the Bush presidency befuddles its way through the creep of its final days. President Obama will inherit an economy in crisis, a middle class in freefall, poverty rising, festering wars, catastrophic climate changes -- the list can go on. But given the scope...

Longtime friend, Mark Steitz, an irrepressible Washington wit, described the potential threat posed by Osama bin Laden's new arsenal:

If bin Laden were smart, he'd disband his terrorist cells, and instead buy ad time on radio and TV stations. The ads could be simple: 'Remember Americans, Your mortgage is a...

In their last obstruction, "Dr. No" Mitch McConnell's Senate Republicans blocked a bridge loan for the auto companies, unwilling even to sustain them long enough for a new administration to sculpt a responsible response to their crisis.

What was the sticking point? It wasn't getting rid of the CEOs that...

Conservatives hail the Obama appointments; progressives express misgivings. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill celebrates Obama as "pragmatic," which she says may dismay some "on the left." David Corn says this isn't the change progressives voted for. The media wallows in the "disappointment of the left."

Welcome to the...

Does President-Elect Obama represent the change we need? His mainstream appointments -- largely veterans of the Clinton administration -- have sparked a clamor from worried supporters. But in one of the critical challenges facing the country -- how to get the country out of what will be the worst downturn...

The family gathers, always a joy
But the year has been hard.
One fine son laid off; another far away,
A lovely daughter distressed, a beloved mother departed.
A time to worry and a time to weep.

Wars go on; hunger grows;
It...

So much for perfect timing. Barack Obama presented his economic team -- Summers, Geithner, Orzag -- all protégés of Robert Rubin -- just as the Treasury Department was pumping out billions to rescue Citibank -- which featured Rubin as chair of its executive committee -- from collapse. Is this the...

Free fall. The US has lost private sector jobs for 10 straight months. One quarter of all businesses in the US plan to cut payroll over the next year. Retail sales fell in October by the largest monthly drop on record. Auto sales have collapsed, driving the auto companies towards...

Conservatives started spinning even before the dancing stopped on election night. Obama's victory is impressive, but "this is still a center right nation," went the mantra. "This was a good Democratic year, says Bill Kristol, "but this is still a center-right country. Conservative and the Republican Party will...

Americans wake today to a new dawn, a new possibility. You don't have to drink the kool aid to appreciate how extraordinary this is. We will look at one another with new eyes. We are a better, bigger, more generous, more optimistic people than many -- particularly the Rove's acolytes...

Today, in the New York Times, an Institute for America's Future op ad calls on us to "remember who we are," comparing the present crisis with that our parents and grandparents faced at dawn of the New Deal. To see the ad, go here.

If, as seems likely, Obama...

Focused on the election? Might be a good idea to watch your pockets at the same time. Here's a glance at what's happening to the Wall Street bailout.

Hank Paulson is, no doubt, the most impressive of the Bush administration cabinet members, (admittedly not a high bar.) He made hundreds...

The Wall Street Journal editors peer fearlessly into the increasingly likely terror of an election that produces a Democratic President with larger Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. Disregarding the delicate sensibilities of women and children, the editors expose to all the stark horrors that could ensue:

Voters...

Hey, "my friends," about the economy? "How about a little straight talk?" All that palaver about cutting spending, balancing the budget? Ruinous. Can't happen. We're going to have to spend a boatload of money - borrow it, deficit spending - to get this economy going. And tax cuts won't do...

So much for the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. Clearly, once the bailout passed, investors took a good look at the real economy and went to the mattresses. We're headed into a great reckoning. And at the heart of that, as illustrated in the new Institute for America's Future...

The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression has sparked a great reckoning. Barack Obama now argues that it represents a "failed philosophy," "the idea that if we give more and more to those with the most, prosperity will trickle down to everyone else." His broadscale indictment of the "era...

The fix was in. The leadership of both parties in Congress, both major presidential candidates, media poobahs, financial statesmen from Warren Buffett to Bob Rubin, all weighing in to support giving the Treasury Secretary a $700 billion revolving fund to bail out Wall Street.

And then Americans said, "stuff it."...

The following is the text of the "agreement on principles" that blew up yesterday at the White House, as House Republican leader John Boehner blindsided negotiators by saying Republicans wouldn't support the deal. Sen. John McCain who had arranged the photo op, refused to state where he stood.

The...

Get ready for the steamroller on the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street.

Yesterday was the time for throat clearing. It started to get out of hand. Opposition to the plan grew through this morning.

Then...

1. Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha and the biggest billionaire of them...